'Man of Steel' Rumors: What Came True

Every movie has a rumor mill, but when your main character is Superman, it naturally becomes a super rumor mill. As anyone who has been following Zack Snyder's film over the past couple of years knows, rarely has there been a film with so many completely random, crazy and unsubstantiated rumors as "Man of Steel."

Which, of course, just made us even more curious to see the movie, if only to find out: Would all of those rumors turn out to be true? Would any of them turn out to be true?

With that in mind, we've taken a close look at "Man of Steel" to finally confirm or debunk some of the biggest rumors that have been driving fans crazy. So if you don't mind some SUPERSPOILERS, then check it out — because the truth will set you free.

Warner Bros.

1. Batman Is In the Movie!

This was one of the most persistent rumors going, thanks mainly to the fact that "The Dark Knight" mastermind Christopher Nolan was a producer on "Man of Steel." First it was said that Joseph Gordon-Levitt would be appearing as a new Batman, but once he denied that rumor, word came that Christian Bale would actually be reprising his role as Bruce Wayne. Obviously, he didn't. In fact, while there was a brief Wayne Enterprises Easter egg in the film, Batman himself was absolutely nowhere to be seen.

Verdict: False

2. Krypton Doesn't Blow Up!

Seemingly based solely on the trailers, the big rumor over the last couple of months has been that in "Man of Steel," Krypton doesn't blow up at all. Instead, Kal-El is simply sent to Earth because he's viewed as a freak of nature — or possibly as a political refugee. Turns out that while both of those things are also kind of true, Krypton does indeed blow right the hell up.

Verdict: False

Warner Bros.

3. No Phantom Zone!

The idea that Krypton didn't blow up also led to a different but related rumor: that there was no Phantom Zone. You may recall that in "Superman II," General Zod and his fellow criminals escaped from the extra-dimensional Phantom Zone to wreak havoc on Earth. This time, rumor had it that General Zod and his army simply followed Kal-El to Earth in their big spaceship. Well, not exactly. They actually were sentenced to the Phantom Zone, but when Krypton blew up, their sentence came to a very abrupt end as the Phantom Zone spat them back out. Close. But still ...

Verdict: False

4. There's a 'Justice League' Post-Credits Teaser!

This one kind of goes hand-in-hand with the Batman rumors, but word on the street was that Nolan and director Zack Snyder were planning to pull a Marvel-style stunt and introduce the idea of the Justice League in a post-credits teaser scene. The only result of this rumor so far has been to trick hundreds of thousands of people into watching ten minutes of tiny print scroll on the big screen. There's no teaser.

Verdict: False

Warner Bros.

5. Jimmy Olsen Is a Girl!

When the IMDb page for "Man of Steel" started getting populated, an interesting coinky-dink was noted: There was no listing for Jimmy Olsen, but there was a listing for a character named Jenny. Played by Rebecca Buller, Jenny was also revealed in still photos from the set to be one of Perry White's assistants. Therefore, logic dictated that this must be a new, gender-reversed version of the character, i.e. Jenny Olsen. Alas, super freeze-frame closeups of the character's ID badge in the film have revealed that Jenny's last name is actually Jurwich. No dice.

Verdict: False

6. Bradley Cooper Plays Lex Luthor!

This was a juicy one, as multiple sources reported earlier this year that Bradley Cooper would be filming a secret cameo in "Man of Steel" as Superman's archenemy Lex Luthor. But despite fans dreaming of the most ab-tastic Lex in world history, Cooper is actually nowhere to be seen in "Man of Steel," as Luthor or as anyone else. Dammit, Internet, stop toying with us!

Verdict: False

Warner Bros.

7. Mackenzie Gray Plays Lex Luthor!

When it comes to Lex Luthor rumors, though, the one involving Mackenzie Gray was even juicier. No less an authority than Ain't It Cool News reported that Gray would be playing Luthor and they had some good evidence to back them up, including a video where Gray confirmed he was in the movie as well as the fact that Gray actually played a Luthor clone on "Smallville." Well, he's in "Man of Steel" all right, but he actually plays evil Kryptonian scientist Jax-Ur. So close!

Verdict: False

8. The Villain Is Black Zero

Courtesy of toy tie-ins, the code-breakers who parse every possible bit of spoilery information seemed to have found a real gem when they discovered numerous toys referencing Black Zero. In the comics, Black Zero is actually the name of a bunch of different things, but one is a supervillain who secretly helped destroy Krypton. That led not only to speculation that Black Zero would be in the movie but that General Zod himself would actually be called Black Zero. Instead, nothing in the movie was called Black Zero, though apparently the toy companies use that name to describe Zod's spaceship. Whoop-de-doo.

Verdict: False

Warner Bros.

9. Superman Fights Faola-Ul and Tor-An!

Finally, those same toy references also mentioned a LEGO playset that included Superman villains Faora-Ul and Tor-An. Sure enough, in the Smallville battle sequence, Superman does indeed fight both of these Kryptonian killers, though Tor-An is never actually mentioned by name in the movie. Of course, this is the rumor people cared about least, since almost nobody has ever heard of either of those characters. Still, one out of nine ain't bad. Or ... actually, it is.